A variety of techniques exists that allow one or more users to access applications hosted on a computing device, such as a server computer. Examples of such techniques include Terminal Services™ (TS) remoting systems from the Microsoft® Corporation. Terminal Services™ systems generally include a server computer hosting one or more applications. In certain cases, applications may be distributed over a number of server computers that form a server collection or a server farm. Users can connect to a single server computer or a server computer in the server farm through a session. A session becomes active when a connected user interacts with the server computer. A plurality of users can interact with the server computer as if they were directly linked with the server computer. Sessions can exist over a local network, such as a local area network (LAN), or can be remoted via the Internet. Sessions may get disconnected due to several reasons like network failure, time delay, etc.
In case a session is disconnected, a user may attempt to reconnect or reestablish the session in order to continue working. Irrespective of load, a user may be directed to a previously disconnected session, if one exists. An exception to this scenario may be if the application the user wants to run is not present in the machine where his earlier session was; however, this is not a factor here. In case the user is directed to an existing session, the connection request can be directed to the pertinent server computer to reestablish the connection, even though the connection request may be made to another server computer within the server farm.
As the number of sessions increases, the load on the server computer increases. Therefore, only a definite number of sessions may exist at the server computer at a given instance. Various techniques exist that allow an individual monitoring a network, such as a system administrator, to balance the load at one or more server computers. These techniques can be implemented with the help of hardware and software.